Chicago White Sox will pay rent on U.S. Cellular Field--3rd time since 1997. Rent exempted when total attendance falls below 1.5 million full-price ticket sales.

Per its agreement with the state of Illinois, which built and owns Comiskey Park, the White Sox' rent payment is determined by the number of tickets sold each season. The more fans the Sox draw to their 81 home games, the more the team pays.

However, the Sox have to meet a minimum ticket sales threshold of 1.5 million full ticket sales or they pay no rent to the state at all. 1/2 price nights mean revenue for the team only.

The Sox have only hit that number five of the past twelve years, the last being 2000. In that year they paid $456,000 to practice and play games at the taxpayer-owned Comiskey.

Year Tickets Sold Rent
1991 2.71 million $4.39 million

1992 2.47 million $2.98 million

1993 2.30 million $2.54 million

1994 1.59 million $912,700

1995 1.49 million $523,500

1996 1.40 million $301,400

1997 1.42 million $415,500

1998 1.07 million -0-

1999 1.03 million -0-

2000 1.59 million $456,000

2001 1.44 million -0-

2002 1.4 million -0-

soxtalker

09-23-2003, 09:37 AM

That means that there is an extra incentive to have those half-price nights.

34 Inch Stick

09-23-2003, 11:47 AM

I smell a tax refund check coming in the mail.

Lip Man 1

09-23-2003, 01:48 PM

It'll be interesting to see how much they pay (and how much less will be alloted to team payroll)

Lip

PaleHoseGeorge

09-23-2003, 01:56 PM

Amazing. Absolutely amazing. The next time somebody whines about lousy attendance, we ought to send them this article. The Sox actually do better on their lease with low attendance and lots of half-priced nights.

The secret for why Sox Marketing is so screwed up is finally revealed...

:gallas
"Haha! The joke is on all of you! If you paid full price for your seats, you're a chump. And we do it by design, not by accident! Our sweetheart lease with the State makes it so!"

:reinsy
"Am I the shrewdest negotiator in all of sports, or what? And oh by the way, this situation is all Sox Fans' fault. Bwahahahahaha!"

duke of dorwood

09-23-2003, 02:03 PM

Iguss the 1.00 kids on Sunday figures in here too. Pretty slick

joecrede

09-23-2003, 02:08 PM

No one can out negotiate the Chairman. I love it. Think St. Pete was ever a better deal? Guarantee you the Chairman never thought so.

voodoochile

09-23-2003, 02:40 PM

The biggest year they had they paid $4.39M in rent, but outdrew the cutoff by 1.2M fans or roughly $25-50M additional revenue. So, they netted out $20M+ (minimum) by drawing better.

Even in 2000 when they just exceeded the number by 90K extra fans, they still made more money on the extra fans than they ended up paying in rent.

Mammoo

09-23-2003, 03:27 PM

1,882,200...not bad for a heartless bunch of underachievers... :(:

With a good manager and a team that fights every day, they'd draw 2.5 mildo!!!

PaleHoseGeorge

09-23-2003, 03:52 PM

Originally posted by voodoochile
The biggest year they had they paid $4.39M in rent, but outdrew the cutoff by 1.2M fans or roughly $25-50M additional revenue. So, they netted out $20M+ (minimum) by drawing better.

Even in 2000 when they just exceeded the number by 90K extra fans, they still made more money on the extra fans than they ended up paying in rent.

Yes, but this is 20/20 hindsight. There was no guarantee that the Sox would draw those extra fans. The Sox built their screwball marketing plan (lots of half-price nights and DISINCENTIVES for full-priced season ticket plans) specifically to capitalize on the sure-things that their lease agreement offers them (free rent up to 1.5 million full-price tickets).

Yes, a smart businessman takes advantage of these things, but a smarter businessman knows the franchise is dying without season ticket sales. Reinsdorf is killing the franchise for implementing a screwball marketing plan that leaves the future of the franchise weak and its long-term viability in doubt.

:reinsy
"In the long-run, I'm dead. The rest of you can deal with the aftermath. Bwahahahahaha!"

BeerHandle

09-23-2003, 04:43 PM

PaleHoseGeorge:

I couldn't agree with you more! As a split season ticket holder (hit & run: b package) I had a lot of games that were on Monday and Tuesday. I was paying close to full price while everyone was paying 1/2 on those nights.

I was extremely frustrated that on those days I do not receive 1/2 price tickets!

voodoochile

09-23-2003, 05:05 PM

Originally posted by PaleHoseGeorge
Yes, but this is 20/20 hindsight. There was no guarantee that the Sox would draw those extra fans. The Sox built their screwball marketing plan (lots of half-price nights and DISINCENTIVES for full-priced season ticket plans) specifically to capitalize on the sure-things that their lease agreement offers them (free rent up to 1.5 million full-price tickets).

Yes, a smart businessman takes advantage of these things, but a smarter businessman knows the franchise is dying without season ticket sales. Reinsdorf is killing the franchise for implementing a screwball marketing plan that leaves the future of the franchise weak and its long-term viability in doubt.

Half Price nights arent the only schemes Jerry has to lower his rent. If you notice, the Granton deal is all about free and half off tickets. When you buy tickets with the "buy one get one free" coupon, the tickets come up as half off the full price. And gift certificates/season ticket exchange dates come up as "comp". While it raises the total attendance, the full price attendance stays low.

But, on the other hand, Jerry does give a lot of tickets out to good causes. The Sox still have the Student Achiever program(which a sponsor, in this case Dominick's, foots the bill) and they gave out tickets for Public Schools essay programs. And the voucher programs(police/fire/govt/teachers) does get people in the door pretty cheep, as much as 75% off on some dates. He may be cheep, but people aside from him benefit from his cheep ways.
Gene

cornball

09-23-2003, 06:49 PM

Does anyone in all of sports have a better lease agreement?

Randar68

09-23-2003, 06:58 PM

Originally posted by ewokpelts
Hey,

Half Price nights arent the only schemes Jerry has to lower his rent. If you notice, the Granton deal is all about free and half off tickets. When you buy tickets with the "buy one get one free" coupon, the tickets come up as half off the full price. And gift certificates/season ticket exchange dates come up as "comp". While it raises the total attendance, the full price attendance stays low.

But, on the other hand, Jerry does give a lot of tickets out to good causes. The Sox still have the Student Achiever program(which a sponsor, in this case Dominick's, foots the bill) and they gave out tickets for Public Schools essay programs. And the voucher programs(police/fire/govt/teachers) does get people in the door pretty cheep, as much as 75% off on some dates. He may be cheep, but people aside from him benefit from his cheep ways.
Gene

Is there anything wrong with it at this point? We're not going to change the stadium, and it was paid for by Hotel taxes, not resident tax-payers. What is the problem with this that we have to go on and on. We want this team to be competitive. Whatever JR does to make more money (which hopefully equates to spending more) we shoudl support.

Heck, we get half-price tickets, $1 hot dogs, Jerry pays less rent but keeps the concessions/parking profits, and people still complain.

There is no winning with Sox fans.

jortafan

09-24-2003, 12:56 AM

Originally posted by cornball
Does anyone in all of sports have a better lease agreement?

Illinois' lease with the White Sox is actually the prototype for most of the lease agreements governments reached with sports teams during the 1990s.

My personal favorite is the Texas Rangers lease agreement, which only required the team to pay rent to the state of Texas for the first five years the new stadium was opened, after which time the building was to be given to the team, with the team having an option to re-sell it back to the state.

So now Texas pays the Rangers money each year in order to get them to play there.